Janelle’s Reviews > A Question of Belonging: Crónicas > Status Update

I also noticed that people did not look each other in the eye. They would keep their heads lowered or look into the distance, as if passing through the other person, which made me think: They must have their own way of looking. I bought a Quechua-Spanish dictionary, where the expression “mirar de soslayo,” to look sideways, had more than twenty synonyms.

All of the employees are wearing Santa hats, and I receive a sour young man as my TSA screener. He had a face that said “get away from me,” and he kept readjusting his hat, which was falling from his head, becoming more furious by the moment.

Mass killings were carried out in the 19th century to rid them of their land; the final one happened in 1914. Back then, they didn’t know how to write and were forced to surrender their lands with the mark of a finger – whoever refused was killed.